Abstract
Mercury heat pipe has the advantages of good thermal stability and low saturated vapor pressure, which is the best choice for the transition from water heat pipe to liquid metal heat pipe. The effects of heating power and heat pipe structure on start-up time and steady-state heat transfer performance of mercury heat pipe were studied by using transient thermal network model. The results showed that: 1) Increasing the length of condenser is beneficial to reducing the start-up time and thermal resistance; 2) Increasing the heating power or wall thickness will reduce the thermal resistance, but increase the start-up time, and increasing the porosity of wick is just the opposite; 3) Increasing the thickness of wick can increase both the start-up time and the thermal resistance.
Highlights
Heat pipe is one of the most effective heat transfer device and It can transfer a large amount of heat through a small cross-section area over a long distance without any additional external power, which is widely used in the fields of Electronics[1], chemical industry[2,3], aerospace[4,5] and deep space exploration[6-7]
Wang et al investigated the effect of heating power on the thermal resistance of potassium heat pipe
The mercury heat pipe does not show a huge temperature difference in the early stage of start-up, which is different from alkali metal Na, K and Li heat pipes
Summary
Heat pipe is one of the most effective heat transfer device and It can transfer a large amount of heat through a small cross-section area over a long distance without any additional external power, which is widely used in the fields of Electronics[1], chemical industry[2,3], aerospace[4,5] and deep space exploration[6-7]. Tournier and El-Genk discovered that when the lithium heat pipe reaches steady state, the wall temperature near the end of condenser drops sharply by 450K[13]. In a word, these studies mainly focus on whether the start-up of heat pipe can be carried out, the critical heat flux and the steady-state heat pipe thermal resistance, while the study on the start-up time of heat pipe is rare, especially for the mercury heat pipe. Since mercury heat pipe can form continuous flow at room temperature, the thermal resistance of steam chamber is very small and it can be ignored. Energy conservation equations are established for seven parts of mercury heat pipe, as shown in Eqs. Longo Kutta method was used to solve the above equations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
